News

Ballcourt to Champions League

Posted on 28 September 2010
- 12:00

Two teenagers used to dream of playing in the Champions League when they trained at Spurs 15 years ago - Peter Crouch and Ledley king detail their amazing journey from the ballcourt at White Hart Lane to the Champions League in the latest issue of Hotspur magazine.

Two teenagers used to dream of playing in the Champions League when they trained at Spurs 15 years ago - Peter Crouch and Ledley king detail their amazing journey from the ballcourt at White Hart Lane to the Champions League in the latest issue of Hotspur magazine.

The pair have taken different paths to the top level of club football.

Ledley is our longest-serving player having signed professional forms in 1998 and making his first-team debut the following year.

'Crouchy' also joined us in 1998 but was released and moved to QPR in 2000. His career path has taken him to Villa, Southampton, Liverpool and Portsmouth before teaming up with Ledley again on his return to Spurs in 2008.

Both internationals who have represented England at the World Cup, the pair achieved that teenage dream by walking out in the Champions League together for Spurs earlier this season.

And how apt that Crouchy should score the key goals on the way - the winner at City to secure fourth place last season and the hat-trick against Young Boys to take us into the group stages.

The San Siro beckons, but both players remember well those early days in the mid-1990s training together as schoolboys at Spurs - as they tell October's Hotspur.

Here's a taste of the interview...

Does it feel like 15 years ago that you were training together?

Crouchy: "No, not really. I remember everything about it. My mum used to take me sometimes because my dad might be at work, then my dad might turn up later and take me home. I remember the trip in, the lads, the training and all the coaches who did so much for me, the likes of Des Bulpin and Pat Holland. They were fantastic with me and two people who really stick out in my mind who really helped me in my early career."

Leds: "No, never. In one way it feels like a long time but 15 years? Time flies! A lot of older players tell you when you are young that your career flies by and it really does. We're both 30 soon! How did that happen? We had some great times back then, we still talk about them and still laugh about them."

Read the interview in full plus the main feature with new signing Sandro, Harry Redknapp, Rafael van der Vaart, William Gallas, Stipe Pletikosa, Ossie Ardiles, Gray Stevens, Les Allen, Wilson Palacios, Younes Kaboul and James Righton of the Klaxons in the latest issue of Hotspur - out now!